Close-ups in the Gloom

It was a gloomy and rainy day for most of yesterday. I was watching all the birds going to town on the food in the bird feeder. There was food on the ground too, and the birds were everywhere. Then I noticed something on the ground that was not a bird. After getting out the binoculars, I discovered that a shrew was also being sneaky and grabbing food. I tried getting a picture of the little critter, but he was too sneaky for me to get a good shot.

So, I decided to get a few shots of the last bits of plant life before winter sets in. Above is a branch from my bridal veil bush.

Here's some funkiness on a log. If you click on it for the larger version, you can see just how weird it is.



And then, of course, we have all our grape vines. I've never been quite adventurous enough to try eating one of these home-grown beauties.


Techie Corner
I used a f-stop of 2.8 on these images at very close range, so the focus is very selective. I was balancing on a ledge to get the grape shot, so it wasn't as crisply focused as I would have liked.